Congratulations Professor Anya Reading!
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
In the nineteenth century Tasmania experienced a number of epidemic diseases like scarlet fever, diphtheria and, most deadly of all, typhoid. Sanitary reformers attributed the epidemics to contaminated water supplies, accumulations of decomposed rubbish, poorly built houses and the absence of underground drainage schemes. Leading reformers, most notably Dr Edward Swarbreck Hall, were Fellows of The Royal Society of Tasmania and used the society as a forum to identify the causes of epidemic disease and to explain the public health reforms that would prevent death and illness. Lectures and papers by medical doctors, sanitary engineers, and statisticians drew on the latest thinking in sanitary science and helped build momentum for public support of such reforms. This paper examines the arguments of sanitary reformers and the reaction to their interventions and concludes that between 1853 and 1911 the Royal Society was the main forum for debate on public health reform in Tasmania.
epidemic diseases, sanitary science, statistics, public health, doctors, Royal Society of Tasmania, RST, Van Diemens Land, natural history, science, papers & proceedings, Australia
Published Papers
The Royal Society of Tasmania acknowledges, with deep respect, the traditional owners of this land, and the ongoing custodianship of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. The Society pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge that Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples have survived severe and unjust impacts resulting from invasion and dispossession of their Country. As an institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, the Royal Society of Tasmania recognises Aboriginal cultural knowledge and practices and seeks to respect and honour these traditions and the deep understanding they represent.
On 15 February 2021, the Royal Society of Tasmania offered a formal Apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
